So, as I've already said before, I was fortunate enough to win a place in Misha's coffee lounge on Saturday morning. I remember seeing Natalie there, and then I was talking to someone who turned out to be my friend Holly (I felt so dumb when we realised we'd been talking for ages online!) and there was maybe about twelve other people, a few who I recognised, most who I didn't. A lot of age ranges too, from sixteen to sixty. It was pretty freaking cool.
I don't think anyone knew what to expect. We'd heard that sometimes he plays twister or musical chairs, other random stuff like that, but when he came in, he just sat down and started chatting. That's all our forty-five minutes was, just sitting and chilling and talking. You could hear the hubbub of the madness outside and in our room, even though it was warm there was a door open with a nice breeze and it was just so chilled out. It sounds bizarre, but even though he's someone I admire, it felt more like a chat with an old friend in a coffee shop, it was so laid back and the conversation jumped around so much. I don't know if I'm the only one who felt that way (and in retrospect, I may have talked too much, but there were a few moments where it could have been an awkward silence and I had something to contribute so I'm trying not to feel so bad?) but it made the weekend a little easier to deal with, knowing we could just kick back for that period of time, instead of rushing around and overheating in the panel room or the corridors outside.
So, what did we talk about? So many things. He asked us if we had any questions, and asked us some questions. We talked about the failed back door pilot for the spin off and what our thoughts were on that. He gave some advice to Natalie on acting, which she wants to pursue. We talked about the cooking show he does with his son, and his plans for the summer. GISHWHES and Random Acts came up, and we talked about past challenges and how that was shaping this year. It'll sound weird, but it felt like we were talking to Misha-the-person, not Misha-the-persona. It didn't feel like he was putting on an act.
Like, when we were discussing bloodlines, we asked him to be honest with his opinion on it, and he said that we knew he couldn't be completely honest because it would get him into trouble (ha!) whichever way he answered, and then he asked us what was wrong with it and we said it felt like they were trying to make it Supernatural-meets-the-Vampire-Diaries and it didn't gel well, and we couldn't get along with the characters, we'd rather see a character we already knew in the spin-off.
He was pretty open with his plans though, he said after Asylum he was visiting a friend in Amsterdam and was looking forward to it because he'd never been to Amsterdam. And from there he was doing Jus In Bello in Italy, going back to LA for a day and then he and his wife were talking their kids on a 400-mile bike ride through Montana (which I think is where they are now?) and that they'd recently done a practice run for about 45 minutes and they screamed for about 20, so he's got high hopes for their trip.
He told us about this extra in the penultimate episode of season nine (after checking we were all up to date, despite not having any channels showing it over here, then telling us we were all doing something illegal, lol, he didn't care though!) who was supposed to just walk out of the scene with all the other extras, but insisted on stopping by a desk and sorting out her coat and bag, and how annoying she was. And that led to him talking about a series of shorts he wrote with his wife and a friend and how the cameramen walked out near the end and they had to put the cameras on sandbags to finish the shoot.
He's such a funny, warm guy. I wish that forty-five minutes was still going on, if that makes sense? I would love to meet him again and chill out like it.
I can't think of much more he said, which is really bad! I know he mentioned Jared and Jensen torturing him, and West acting more and more like Vicki … but you know what? Everything else I might remember … I'm going to save for me and the other people in that room. If I haven't already blabbed it to you anyway. I know, I know, such a cop-out, right? Sorry :(
Tuesday, 24 June 2014
Monday, 23 June 2014
Routine apology thread
Sorry, like I said in my other post, I've felt a bit burnt out with writing lately. I still have half a recap sitting in drafts, still need to continue the Asylum posts, which I think I have about three more to cover? And I'm planning on another type of thread pattern soon.
Do I have any news from the last couple of weeks, since my last post? Well:
-I'm going to Asylum 13 and Asylum 14. I'm very excited to get to meet, among others, Jim Beaver, Matt Cohen, DJ Qualls, Gil McKenney and Richard Speight Junior.
-Sales are going well, but the air con on mens is broken. It is too damn hot to work in, I swear!
-I'll be doing GISHWHES this year, Misha's worldwide scavenger hunt. It's going to be crazy good. I should book the time off work …
-I've commissioned some artwork! A girl I met through the Asylum convention does these cute cartoons she calls Chibi Village and I've paid for her to draw some of my characters, so I have some kind of visual reference. I might post a picture when she's finished with them, but that's going to take a few weeks.
-Sarah-Jane and I went to see The Fault In Our Stars, based on the John Green book. She liked the book. I did not. But we both seemed okay about the film. More on that later ;)
-I got a few comments on one of my fanfics from this person, and I thought they were basically telling me my work was shit. So I messaged them saying I was sorry they didn't like it and gave the reasons why I wrote the thing in the first place and they messaged back saying no, it's funny, they've just promoted it on some group I've never heard of before, and that got me a few more comments and it was kind of cool chatting to them. I've got a message in my fan fiction inbox waiting right now, from them, should answer it but I'm tired, so it'll happen in the morning.
-I've been doing a paint-by-numbers. I know, that's lame, it's not a real skill, yadda yadda yadda. I find it relaxing, and it's nice to get the muscle memory going in my hands from being that type of creative. I miss making art, but I don't have the fire in my belly to improve the craft and lo, it's wilting terribly. I need to stop coming on the computer and spending forever writing 500 words like I am right now.
Hope you enjoyed that little update in my life! Until next time!
Do I have any news from the last couple of weeks, since my last post? Well:
-I'm going to Asylum 13 and Asylum 14. I'm very excited to get to meet, among others, Jim Beaver, Matt Cohen, DJ Qualls, Gil McKenney and Richard Speight Junior.
-Sales are going well, but the air con on mens is broken. It is too damn hot to work in, I swear!
-I'll be doing GISHWHES this year, Misha's worldwide scavenger hunt. It's going to be crazy good. I should book the time off work …
-I've commissioned some artwork! A girl I met through the Asylum convention does these cute cartoons she calls Chibi Village and I've paid for her to draw some of my characters, so I have some kind of visual reference. I might post a picture when she's finished with them, but that's going to take a few weeks.
-Sarah-Jane and I went to see The Fault In Our Stars, based on the John Green book. She liked the book. I did not. But we both seemed okay about the film. More on that later ;)
-I got a few comments on one of my fanfics from this person, and I thought they were basically telling me my work was shit. So I messaged them saying I was sorry they didn't like it and gave the reasons why I wrote the thing in the first place and they messaged back saying no, it's funny, they've just promoted it on some group I've never heard of before, and that got me a few more comments and it was kind of cool chatting to them. I've got a message in my fan fiction inbox waiting right now, from them, should answer it but I'm tired, so it'll happen in the morning.
-I've been doing a paint-by-numbers. I know, that's lame, it's not a real skill, yadda yadda yadda. I find it relaxing, and it's nice to get the muscle memory going in my hands from being that type of creative. I miss making art, but I don't have the fire in my belly to improve the craft and lo, it's wilting terribly. I need to stop coming on the computer and spending forever writing 500 words like I am right now.
Hope you enjoyed that little update in my life! Until next time!
Tuesday, 10 June 2014
Block
I have a serious case of writer's block. Like, I'm not into any of my projects now. I think there's a few reasons for this, ones I don't want to go into, and a couple that I do.
Firstly, like I said in my optimism thread (weird place to put it, I know) I was doing thousands of words in a day. I did nearly 200k in the 100k in 100 days challenge. My weekly average was 12k. Then I did the convention, and above reasons happened, and I think I burnt out.
But also, I think it's because one of these projects is for my writing group. We're doing a Christmas anthology for 7-12 year olds. This is the first time they'll see my writing. The deadline is Saturday. Before today, after two writing sessions (seriously!) I had 292 words. I've done 379 today in an hour. I once did 1200 in a half hour sprint! I think I'm finding it difficult because hey, the weather outside is beautiful and I'm writing about Christmas, and I'm not sure whether the piece will work for the group/the target audience, and people will be paying to read this and it's been done in a few weeks, instead of several years like my Uprooted series. I have to meet 2k with this story and I'm not confident I'll hit anywhere near the target. Also, this isn't like my stories where I've planned and planned and planned, this has pretty much been a pantser story. As in, writing by the seat of my pants.
Sarah-Jane brainstormed with me last week to get a resolution to the story, which I love, but I think it's going to need a lot of work and we'll only have so many edit options.
I think it's bleeding through to my other projects as well. Maybe this blog post (which has taken me ten minutes and is already more than I've written today, dammit!) will help with inspiration for any one of them, but I think there's more to it than that. Maybe the guest post I'll be writing for Sarah-Jane's book blog (which hopefully I could post here too) will also help me figure stuff out? We'll see.
Firstly, like I said in my optimism thread (weird place to put it, I know) I was doing thousands of words in a day. I did nearly 200k in the 100k in 100 days challenge. My weekly average was 12k. Then I did the convention, and above reasons happened, and I think I burnt out.
But also, I think it's because one of these projects is for my writing group. We're doing a Christmas anthology for 7-12 year olds. This is the first time they'll see my writing. The deadline is Saturday. Before today, after two writing sessions (seriously!) I had 292 words. I've done 379 today in an hour. I once did 1200 in a half hour sprint! I think I'm finding it difficult because hey, the weather outside is beautiful and I'm writing about Christmas, and I'm not sure whether the piece will work for the group/the target audience, and people will be paying to read this and it's been done in a few weeks, instead of several years like my Uprooted series. I have to meet 2k with this story and I'm not confident I'll hit anywhere near the target. Also, this isn't like my stories where I've planned and planned and planned, this has pretty much been a pantser story. As in, writing by the seat of my pants.
Sarah-Jane brainstormed with me last week to get a resolution to the story, which I love, but I think it's going to need a lot of work and we'll only have so many edit options.
I think it's bleeding through to my other projects as well. Maybe this blog post (which has taken me ten minutes and is already more than I've written today, dammit!) will help with inspiration for any one of them, but I think there's more to it than that. Maybe the guest post I'll be writing for Sarah-Jane's book blog (which hopefully I could post here too) will also help me figure stuff out? We'll see.
Sunday, 8 June 2014
Asylum series, part three: Sunday
Forgive me if I seem distracted, season seven is showing on TV right now. Dean's on trial with Osiris. He has guilt issues.
Anyway, so Sunday! We got there in time to pick up our pictures before going into the panel room for Misha and Jared's joint panel. I remember doing the conga on the way into the panel room? And somehow I ended up sitting next to Annie and her husband, who was rocking a kilt, which was pretty awesome. There were some schedule changes, and then Misha and Jared were late for their panel.
And then Misha showed … and Jared was still late. Misha fielded a couple of questions before Jared came in. Jared said Misha had promised to wait for him, turned around to do something, went back and Misha had already left … ha! They were so funny together, and at one point Jared ended up on the floor laughing his overgrown ass off, because two little girls had stepped up to the microphone and the older sister picked the little sister up and donked her head on the microphone. Jared wet himself! We also heard some of the ways Jared and Jensen torture Misha on a regular basis, including Jared randomly deciding to stow fish in Misha's car, and how they screwed with him so badly they got thrown out of their own show, just so Misha could film his parts. I love hearing about stuff like that, seeing how strong their bond is even if it sounds like they're tormenting each other. Some video evidence:
Link to Jared on the floor laughing because YouTube isn't playing ball
I went to the loo after their panel, and left my phone behind accidentally, klutz that I am. I went back to get it, and the girls in my row said they'd handed it in. And, okay, this used to be my lock screen:
I totally ship Destiel, did you not get that already? Well, anyway, after seeing the messages that came up when someone lost their wallet, I'm glad I changed my lock screen to this the night before:
Anyway, so Sunday! We got there in time to pick up our pictures before going into the panel room for Misha and Jared's joint panel. I remember doing the conga on the way into the panel room? And somehow I ended up sitting next to Annie and her husband, who was rocking a kilt, which was pretty awesome. There were some schedule changes, and then Misha and Jared were late for their panel.
And then Misha showed … and Jared was still late. Misha fielded a couple of questions before Jared came in. Jared said Misha had promised to wait for him, turned around to do something, went back and Misha had already left … ha! They were so funny together, and at one point Jared ended up on the floor laughing his overgrown ass off, because two little girls had stepped up to the microphone and the older sister picked the little sister up and donked her head on the microphone. Jared wet himself! We also heard some of the ways Jared and Jensen torture Misha on a regular basis, including Jared randomly deciding to stow fish in Misha's car, and how they screwed with him so badly they got thrown out of their own show, just so Misha could film his parts. I love hearing about stuff like that, seeing how strong their bond is even if it sounds like they're tormenting each other. Some video evidence:
Link to Jared on the floor laughing because YouTube isn't playing ball
I went to the loo after their panel, and left my phone behind accidentally, klutz that I am. I went back to get it, and the girls in my row said they'd handed it in. And, okay, this used to be my lock screen:
I totally ship Destiel, did you not get that already? Well, anyway, after seeing the messages that came up when someone lost their wallet, I'm glad I changed my lock screen to this the night before:
(Fangirl moment! Me and Misha! Arrrrrrggggghhhhhhhh! Although, my arm looks weird in that picture)
Because when I went up to ask about it, they pressed the button, held it up to my face and asked if I was sure it was mine. Cheeky! But a lot better than reading jokey comments about the manip.
I think my first picture was Misha and Jared's double photo, where Jared took the piss out of me (thanks, Jared!) but I got another hug from Misha, so win ;)
I got my morning autographs, from people like Ty Olsson, Osric Chau, AJ Buckley, Gabriel Tigerman, Adam Harrington … it was pretty awesome. I went back in the panel room and saw some of Misha's second solo panel, and I went straight from there to my picture with Seb Roche, and then I went to see Gabe and Tyler's panel, which Adam was in as well. Oh my God, the three of them were hysterical. And it was so cool to see three actors who had minor roles and see how the show influenced their lives, how accepted they were by the convention crowd. They were amazing!
I next caught some of Ty's panel, where he got choked up because he got on the subject of his kids, and he asked for Seb, so Seb invaded, being completely wrong and funny and destroying all good things like Disney. He also got this girl - who I've spoken to since and is amazing - called Rachel to sing Let It Go as he ran around the room. She was so good, we gave her a standing ovation. If you want to watch, I'm sure she won't mind me doing this:
I believe after that I queued for my Osric picture? Seb was a sweetheart, but oh my goodness, Osric! I asked for him to dip me, like in a cheesy romance sort of thing, and he was game for it, and we started to do it and then the photographer said something about we had to move over, so he kind of shuffled me along, still holding onto me. It wasn't good for my fangirl levels. I kinda hate that picture though, I wasn't ready when they took it and I have a major double chin. But Osric was such a sweetie … I gave him a thank-you hug as I walked off, I'm sure I pissed him off!
I went back to the vendor's room, talked to Amanda Tapping's foundation girls, spoke with Will for a bit, said hi to the Random Acts ladies and signed up to do a short video they were making, talking about kind acts. I talked about the people who had donated blood for me, and the fundraising I participated in now as a thank you. Those ladies are so sweet!
After that, I got my final few autographs, from Mark S, Misha, Seb and Tyler. I think Tyler was in that slot? Not remembering that too well, I remember deciding to buy his autograph and then going up to get it and realising he was flirting with his minder. I was like 'ohhhh, I'll leave you two alone then!' *big wink* he was so cool! And I gave Misha the pooping dinosaur books for West but my TTP brain was in full force by then and I messed up, telling him he could read them with Misha, tit that I am. He was clearly tired too by then, but I was going 'oh my god, sorry, West!' as he corrected me, but it was cool and he said West loved Christmas and poop so he was sure he'd enjoy them. Even if that wasn't true, I really appreciated the effort. Misha put in so much effort with all the fans.
Then it was time for the closing ceremony, and the last few minutes of Amanda's panel, and a quick run to get the Seb and Osric photographs before the long drive home. It was even longer because numbnuts here forgot to print return instructions and went all the way to Oxford before she corrected herself!
And that was the weekend, pretty much. I feel really hazy about the order of things from Sunday, for some reason? Also, those youtube videos are not mine, so if you want to claim them, let me know and I'll tag them, or remove them if that's what you want as well.
Next post will be about the coffee lounge, which will probably be muddled up because well, this is me ;) I hope you're ready for a full blast of Misha Fangirling!
I went back to the vendor's room, talked to Amanda Tapping's foundation girls, spoke with Will for a bit, said hi to the Random Acts ladies and signed up to do a short video they were making, talking about kind acts. I talked about the people who had donated blood for me, and the fundraising I participated in now as a thank you. Those ladies are so sweet!
After that, I got my final few autographs, from Mark S, Misha, Seb and Tyler. I think Tyler was in that slot? Not remembering that too well, I remember deciding to buy his autograph and then going up to get it and realising he was flirting with his minder. I was like 'ohhhh, I'll leave you two alone then!' *big wink* he was so cool! And I gave Misha the pooping dinosaur books for West but my TTP brain was in full force by then and I messed up, telling him he could read them with Misha, tit that I am. He was clearly tired too by then, but I was going 'oh my god, sorry, West!' as he corrected me, but it was cool and he said West loved Christmas and poop so he was sure he'd enjoy them. Even if that wasn't true, I really appreciated the effort. Misha put in so much effort with all the fans.
Then it was time for the closing ceremony, and the last few minutes of Amanda's panel, and a quick run to get the Seb and Osric photographs before the long drive home. It was even longer because numbnuts here forgot to print return instructions and went all the way to Oxford before she corrected herself!
And that was the weekend, pretty much. I feel really hazy about the order of things from Sunday, for some reason? Also, those youtube videos are not mine, so if you want to claim them, let me know and I'll tag them, or remove them if that's what you want as well.
Next post will be about the coffee lounge, which will probably be muddled up because well, this is me ;) I hope you're ready for a full blast of Misha Fangirling!
Saturday, 7 June 2014
Optimism
The last few weeks have completely sucked. I don't think it's going to end for a while, but I made a promise to myself when I left McDonald's that I would embrace the positives in life, even when inside it fucking hurts. And at the moment, though it doesn't feel like it, there are a lot of positives. Like:
-When I last weighed myself, I was 11 stone, 7 pounds. This is the halfway mark of my target. Yes, it was slower than I anticipated, but I'm feeling healthier than ever. My physical body matches the way I picture myself more. It's giving me a lot more confidence. I take that as a win.
-When re-reading Departed, and seeing it was as bad as it felt at the time, I surprised myself by really liking the ending. It's a letter from Carter to Lambrini, and he's talking about a lot of the issues that come up through the book and kind of pushes towards the third one and apart from typos, there's nothing I would change about it. At least, for now.
-I have the UCLH bike ride tomorrow, my second year doing it. 7 miles across hills, seeing deer, raising money to help others who get shat on by this condition … and this time I have a bike that can go up an incline.
-I actually had a Saturday off (thank you, Lydia!) and not just a Saturday off where I got called in, but an actual, bonafide, Saturday off. I took the boy shopping because he's had a growth spurt, and after £106 in Primark, he has new trousers, new shirts, some PJs, pants and socks, two new pairs of shoes, a hat and sunglasses. And a lot of marvel themed crap. And now I have to go through the explosion of clothes in his room and throw out anything aged under 5. And yeah, he's still in 5-6 clothes when he's seven in two months.
-I'll be doing GISHWES this year, which I'm excited about. No idea what to expect! I'm in a team of about 8 other people, so there's still room in our group. It starts on my mum's birthday, so that may get a teeny bit messy :/ I'm so behind GISHWES, and RandomActs, and any crazy idea Misha has. Follow those links, you'll see why he's a hero of mine.
-Speaking of which, I have met several of my heroes, including Misha, and had no bad experiences. That's pretty awesome, especially when people recommend you don't meet your heroes because they may disappoint you. I've been very lucky, in that regard.
-I'm getting back into the flow of writing, slowly. I think there's a few reasons why I haven't been doing it so much lately - I haven't balanced it with other things the way I normally do, I've overloaded myself with work and other commitments, I haven't taken the time to step back, step away and process like I normally do. I burnt myself out a little, trying to completely thrash my yearly writing goal. I'm trying not to feel bad if I don't hit 1k a day. I won't be doing July's Camp NaNo. Even if I could set my goal at 5k for the month … it's just too much on top of all my commitments. I'm still learning where I need to balance everything, I guess. It's a long lesson.
-I went to a parents evening this week about Noah, and heard he's on target for writing but would be much further if he just got his ideas down on paper because he has amazing ideas and just doesn't get them down. His teacher said she gets frustrated because she wants to know what's going to happen and Noah won't commit to the ending. But he's started writing stories at home, so maybe he'll develop it more (yes, I'm ridiculously proud that he's so creative). He's also a level above where he should be for maths and three above where he should be for reading. My obsessive reading to him has had an impact ;) we're nearly out of Roald Dahl books now, going to try for David Walliams books next, they're meant to be really good.
That's not all of my positives, but that's all I can think of for now.
-When I last weighed myself, I was 11 stone, 7 pounds. This is the halfway mark of my target. Yes, it was slower than I anticipated, but I'm feeling healthier than ever. My physical body matches the way I picture myself more. It's giving me a lot more confidence. I take that as a win.
-When re-reading Departed, and seeing it was as bad as it felt at the time, I surprised myself by really liking the ending. It's a letter from Carter to Lambrini, and he's talking about a lot of the issues that come up through the book and kind of pushes towards the third one and apart from typos, there's nothing I would change about it. At least, for now.
-I have the UCLH bike ride tomorrow, my second year doing it. 7 miles across hills, seeing deer, raising money to help others who get shat on by this condition … and this time I have a bike that can go up an incline.
-I actually had a Saturday off (thank you, Lydia!) and not just a Saturday off where I got called in, but an actual, bonafide, Saturday off. I took the boy shopping because he's had a growth spurt, and after £106 in Primark, he has new trousers, new shirts, some PJs, pants and socks, two new pairs of shoes, a hat and sunglasses. And a lot of marvel themed crap. And now I have to go through the explosion of clothes in his room and throw out anything aged under 5. And yeah, he's still in 5-6 clothes when he's seven in two months.
-I'll be doing GISHWES this year, which I'm excited about. No idea what to expect! I'm in a team of about 8 other people, so there's still room in our group. It starts on my mum's birthday, so that may get a teeny bit messy :/ I'm so behind GISHWES, and RandomActs, and any crazy idea Misha has. Follow those links, you'll see why he's a hero of mine.
-Speaking of which, I have met several of my heroes, including Misha, and had no bad experiences. That's pretty awesome, especially when people recommend you don't meet your heroes because they may disappoint you. I've been very lucky, in that regard.
-I'm getting back into the flow of writing, slowly. I think there's a few reasons why I haven't been doing it so much lately - I haven't balanced it with other things the way I normally do, I've overloaded myself with work and other commitments, I haven't taken the time to step back, step away and process like I normally do. I burnt myself out a little, trying to completely thrash my yearly writing goal. I'm trying not to feel bad if I don't hit 1k a day. I won't be doing July's Camp NaNo. Even if I could set my goal at 5k for the month … it's just too much on top of all my commitments. I'm still learning where I need to balance everything, I guess. It's a long lesson.
-I went to a parents evening this week about Noah, and heard he's on target for writing but would be much further if he just got his ideas down on paper because he has amazing ideas and just doesn't get them down. His teacher said she gets frustrated because she wants to know what's going to happen and Noah won't commit to the ending. But he's started writing stories at home, so maybe he'll develop it more (yes, I'm ridiculously proud that he's so creative). He's also a level above where he should be for maths and three above where he should be for reading. My obsessive reading to him has had an impact ;) we're nearly out of Roald Dahl books now, going to try for David Walliams books next, they're meant to be really good.
That's not all of my positives, but that's all I can think of for now.
Tuesday, 3 June 2014
Asylum Series part 2: Saturday
I'd just like to preface this and say, because I didn't in my last post, that after a few laughably irrelevant comments I'd received on my Destiel post (and for some reason, the first one of these) I've turned comment moderation on. I didn't want to, because I don't get many comments on this blog (mainly because what, five people read it? Except for the Destiel post that I did whore out a little, obviously) and I'd been asked to turn off that 'prove you're not a robot' crap I did have because one of my friends who did want to comment was too lazy for that. I'll probably turn it off soon enough, but for now, that's the way I'm keeping it.
Anyway, so Saturday! We queued up and then filed into the room we'd been in for the tube station party, which during the day was the panel room. Misha's panel was up first, after a quick opening ceremony, but first they announced the raffle winners they'd had so far for the coffee lounges. I'd joked before that sod's law, I would get Jared and Misha's coffee lounges on the Saturday (they were on at the same time) but I didn't expect to win, at all. There were around 1,500 fans there, and about 15 spots in each lounge. But I won Misha's one. Which I was shocked about but psyched too, because Misha is, as I said in the Destiel post, a bit of a hero of mine. The girl next to me also won, so we went together to pay for the lounge in the vendors room, and when we were in the room, paying, Misha walked through to talk to his charity. A few girls did freak out a little, but I wasn't. I know that sounds strange, but for me the whole thing felt really surreal? I did check for the Jared lounge too, because sod's law may have been in effect, but I was a few numbers out. Which is probably lucky, because that one was £120! Misha by comparison was £50. I know, ouch.
Anyway, we got back in the panel room and the opening ceremony was already over, and Misha came on stage, being the crazy, yet wonderful, yet intelligent person he is. And despite that, it's kinda when things ballsed up a bit. They had screens either side of the stage so that showed a close up of what was on stage for those of us too far back to see. They also used those screens to announce when people were supposed to go, in group order, for their pictures and autographs. It started okay, announcing Amanda's photos (and when all the upgrades at the front stood up for it, Misha called them all Destiel-haters, haha!) and it went from group F to final calls, instead of all the alphabet. I think everyone panicked, because after Misha's panel everyone kind of freaked!
Anyway, because of the way the schedule was fitted out, with the lounge and all, I went to get my photo with Misha first, where I told him I'd be at the lounge and he totally bluffed a 'looking forward to it' before insisting on a big hug, like he was doing to everyone. He's a good hugger ;) and then I went to the lounge room, where I started talking with a girl who interrupted after five seconds to ask if I was me, and it turned out to be Holly, a girl I've befriended on the page who's trying to write a modern version of Game of Thrones. I've read two chapters, and about four people have already, very graphically died. One of them twice. She's gruesome, and awesome! My friend Natalie was also there, who I'd spoken to at dinner the night before, and the girl I'd sat with in the Misha panel, so it was cool knowing other people who were in the room.
I'll talk more about the lounge in another post, but it was seriously cool. After the photo op I was starting to get excited, and after about ten minutes in the room I was feeling seriously chilled out. Like the nervous excitement that had barely started had gone. I know Holly's been looking back since and thinking she opened mouth and inserted foot a few times, which makes me sad because she looks up to him too. I've tried reassuring her that it wasn't as bad as she thinks, but it can be hard when someone's formed a negative opinion to convince them that there's a positivity there (and now I feel like I'm repeating a conversation I had with someone this morning over a negative perception about someone) but I hope in time, she can look over it and think it wasn't so bad, and maybe Misha was teasing her. She said in her autograph and photograph he was jokey and friendly as well, so I think maybe her nerves got the better of her. I hope, anyway.
So, after the lounge, it was the end of Mark Sheppard's photo session, and I admit, Holly and I played the system a little. We said someone by our lounge had said it was okay for us to go in after the lounge, some random mythical steward (the official line was we got our photos first, then the lounge, but they were running behind at the time and someone who had tried to follow it missed the lounge, and when Misha heard that he was like 'she's coming to tomorrow's one then, right?' like it wasn't even an option that she'd miss out) and they let us straight in. Everyone was kinda screwing up the system, it meant way too many people were milling around, but also that everyone was missing the panels to panic. Whoops. After that, we filed in for Jared's panel, which was freaking awesome. He's everything people say he is and more. Even though he'd been in London, then Paris, then New York for two days, then back in London, he was full of energy and jokes and he was such a cool guy.
It was about lunchtime, so I went to get my Baby photo, and then we heard from Hayl where Jared was doing his autographs. We started queuing up, but then an op came up that both Hayl and I had, so we went to find out what was going on with that, but they finally started trying to control people by groups. And then Hayl decided she was going to get some autographs and I realised I meant to buy a book from a vendor I'd been chatting to for my autos, so I went to the vendors room instead. It was busy, but I managed to get the book I'd fallen in love with online and agreed with the guy, Will, to come back and chat when it was less busy. And then I saw the line for Jared was seriously short, and bumped into the girl from the panel room/Misha lounge and we queued together for our autographs. She was telling me how she had no interest in her RE exam for GCSE so applied every answer to Sam and Dean. Love it!
I was a complete dork, and bought a couple of books for Misha and Jared's kids, Tom and West, so when Jared did my autograph I gave him the copies … I got them the pooping dinosaur books. Jared looked at them like 'what the fuck are these' but he took it pretty well. His minder was talking them up, so thank you Rogue Worker who loves those books too! He was like 'Guess I'm reading about dinosaur poop tonight, thanks.' lol, I love the sarcasm.
So after that, I went to check on the queue for the photo I mentioned early, with AJ Buckley (the guy who retweeted my Ghostfacers comment a few weeks ago) and the queue was low so I got in, and did an awesome Ghostfacers pose with him and Travis, who was on the phone. AJ was so chilled out, he was awesome! On my way back, I bumped into one of the Hannah's, and we sat there talking for a while with someone I think was called Christina, about the day so far and our experiences with the other fans and it was pretty cool to bump into her and chat. She looks scarily like someone I used to work with, which threw me off a little, but otherwise, I love her no-nonsense attitude.
I think next I went to get some autographs, which included being one of the ones who told Mark Pellegrino when the hell he was meant to be doing his photo ops, which kept getting moved! My memory is hazy as to whether I got my picture with Jared next, or my picture with him, but they were my last two pictures. And at the end of the day, three of my pictures (Misha, Mark S and Baby) were ready, so I picked those up, and then we went back to our hotel for food and to 'have an early night' (I can't do them, I seriously can't!)
And that was, in essence, my Saturday! I'll probably write up my Sunday on Thursday, which is my next day off. That cool? Cool!
Anyway, so Saturday! We queued up and then filed into the room we'd been in for the tube station party, which during the day was the panel room. Misha's panel was up first, after a quick opening ceremony, but first they announced the raffle winners they'd had so far for the coffee lounges. I'd joked before that sod's law, I would get Jared and Misha's coffee lounges on the Saturday (they were on at the same time) but I didn't expect to win, at all. There were around 1,500 fans there, and about 15 spots in each lounge. But I won Misha's one. Which I was shocked about but psyched too, because Misha is, as I said in the Destiel post, a bit of a hero of mine. The girl next to me also won, so we went together to pay for the lounge in the vendors room, and when we were in the room, paying, Misha walked through to talk to his charity. A few girls did freak out a little, but I wasn't. I know that sounds strange, but for me the whole thing felt really surreal? I did check for the Jared lounge too, because sod's law may have been in effect, but I was a few numbers out. Which is probably lucky, because that one was £120! Misha by comparison was £50. I know, ouch.
Anyway, we got back in the panel room and the opening ceremony was already over, and Misha came on stage, being the crazy, yet wonderful, yet intelligent person he is. And despite that, it's kinda when things ballsed up a bit. They had screens either side of the stage so that showed a close up of what was on stage for those of us too far back to see. They also used those screens to announce when people were supposed to go, in group order, for their pictures and autographs. It started okay, announcing Amanda's photos (and when all the upgrades at the front stood up for it, Misha called them all Destiel-haters, haha!) and it went from group F to final calls, instead of all the alphabet. I think everyone panicked, because after Misha's panel everyone kind of freaked!
Anyway, because of the way the schedule was fitted out, with the lounge and all, I went to get my photo with Misha first, where I told him I'd be at the lounge and he totally bluffed a 'looking forward to it' before insisting on a big hug, like he was doing to everyone. He's a good hugger ;) and then I went to the lounge room, where I started talking with a girl who interrupted after five seconds to ask if I was me, and it turned out to be Holly, a girl I've befriended on the page who's trying to write a modern version of Game of Thrones. I've read two chapters, and about four people have already, very graphically died. One of them twice. She's gruesome, and awesome! My friend Natalie was also there, who I'd spoken to at dinner the night before, and the girl I'd sat with in the Misha panel, so it was cool knowing other people who were in the room.
I'll talk more about the lounge in another post, but it was seriously cool. After the photo op I was starting to get excited, and after about ten minutes in the room I was feeling seriously chilled out. Like the nervous excitement that had barely started had gone. I know Holly's been looking back since and thinking she opened mouth and inserted foot a few times, which makes me sad because she looks up to him too. I've tried reassuring her that it wasn't as bad as she thinks, but it can be hard when someone's formed a negative opinion to convince them that there's a positivity there (and now I feel like I'm repeating a conversation I had with someone this morning over a negative perception about someone) but I hope in time, she can look over it and think it wasn't so bad, and maybe Misha was teasing her. She said in her autograph and photograph he was jokey and friendly as well, so I think maybe her nerves got the better of her. I hope, anyway.
So, after the lounge, it was the end of Mark Sheppard's photo session, and I admit, Holly and I played the system a little. We said someone by our lounge had said it was okay for us to go in after the lounge, some random mythical steward (the official line was we got our photos first, then the lounge, but they were running behind at the time and someone who had tried to follow it missed the lounge, and when Misha heard that he was like 'she's coming to tomorrow's one then, right?' like it wasn't even an option that she'd miss out) and they let us straight in. Everyone was kinda screwing up the system, it meant way too many people were milling around, but also that everyone was missing the panels to panic. Whoops. After that, we filed in for Jared's panel, which was freaking awesome. He's everything people say he is and more. Even though he'd been in London, then Paris, then New York for two days, then back in London, he was full of energy and jokes and he was such a cool guy.
It was about lunchtime, so I went to get my Baby photo, and then we heard from Hayl where Jared was doing his autographs. We started queuing up, but then an op came up that both Hayl and I had, so we went to find out what was going on with that, but they finally started trying to control people by groups. And then Hayl decided she was going to get some autographs and I realised I meant to buy a book from a vendor I'd been chatting to for my autos, so I went to the vendors room instead. It was busy, but I managed to get the book I'd fallen in love with online and agreed with the guy, Will, to come back and chat when it was less busy. And then I saw the line for Jared was seriously short, and bumped into the girl from the panel room/Misha lounge and we queued together for our autographs. She was telling me how she had no interest in her RE exam for GCSE so applied every answer to Sam and Dean. Love it!
I was a complete dork, and bought a couple of books for Misha and Jared's kids, Tom and West, so when Jared did my autograph I gave him the copies … I got them the pooping dinosaur books. Jared looked at them like 'what the fuck are these' but he took it pretty well. His minder was talking them up, so thank you Rogue Worker who loves those books too! He was like 'Guess I'm reading about dinosaur poop tonight, thanks.' lol, I love the sarcasm.
So after that, I went to check on the queue for the photo I mentioned early, with AJ Buckley (the guy who retweeted my Ghostfacers comment a few weeks ago) and the queue was low so I got in, and did an awesome Ghostfacers pose with him and Travis, who was on the phone. AJ was so chilled out, he was awesome! On my way back, I bumped into one of the Hannah's, and we sat there talking for a while with someone I think was called Christina, about the day so far and our experiences with the other fans and it was pretty cool to bump into her and chat. She looks scarily like someone I used to work with, which threw me off a little, but otherwise, I love her no-nonsense attitude.
I think next I went to get some autographs, which included being one of the ones who told Mark Pellegrino when the hell he was meant to be doing his photo ops, which kept getting moved! My memory is hazy as to whether I got my picture with Jared next, or my picture with him, but they were my last two pictures. And at the end of the day, three of my pictures (Misha, Mark S and Baby) were ready, so I picked those up, and then we went back to our hotel for food and to 'have an early night' (I can't do them, I seriously can't!)
And that was, in essence, my Saturday! I'll probably write up my Sunday on Thursday, which is my next day off. That cool? Cool!
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